Bradley Cooper, On Brink Of Stardom, Drops His Longtime Manager

How many times have we heard this story? Bradley Cooper, who, after a long career is poised on the brink of real stardom, has just dropped longtime manager Susan Calogerakis at Thruline Entertainment. She had been with him all through a career that began with films like Wet Hot American Summer and Carnival Knowledge, before Cooper graduated to headlining solid studio fare like The Hangover, the upcoming The A-Team, and a Hangover sequel that will pay him in the vicinity of $5 million against 4% of box office gross. So it’s a heartbreak to lose an actor who’d grown to become Thurline’s most prominent client. I’d heard he asked his manager to cut commissions and she refused. Neither Cooper nor Calogerakis cared to address the reasons for his departure.

121 Comments

Sigh • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Im not shocked the real question is why is anyone else? He was playing a game with her for years and she thought he was “really loyal” to her but he is and was always an opportunist. It would have been more noble to drop her years ago and tried to climb to the top by himself instead of creating a casualty along the way.Just like in anything in life, the longer you stay with someone you dont really want to be with the fall becomes that more devastating for the outsiders to watch.

Maybe this time she’ll get lucky…

tseidman • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

This site is populated by agents, managers, and assistants. Executives as well. The talent, those employed at least, are either busy putting that talent to good use, or enjoying the life that the talent offers them. They’re not sitting on this board, monitoring the comments.

Talent gets screwed over by representation all the time. They make note of it. When they leave, it’s generally for good reason.

Snaporaz • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Or more likely the talent hasn’t figured out this whole interweb tubes thing yet

X • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Scumbag. Cut commissions??? Good on Thruline for saying no. Besides we all know that Galifianakis was the real breakout star of The Hangover.

Joe Randa • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Good for Thruline? 5 % of Bradley Cooper’s earnings is worth a helluva lot more than 10% of a silly principle.

Good for Cooper is more like it. He’s got some leverage now. His manager was LUCKY he was still offering her something. It’s business.

If you get to a certain point as an actor (making enough money) you’ve instantly incetivized an agency to do more work for you, hence less need for manager.

shriveledliver • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

You’ve got to be kidding me. This makes him a douche? If I were getting 5 mil against 4% of gross, I’d ask my ENTIRE team to cut commissions. 5% of $10-$15 million is a hell of a lot better than $0.

loyalist • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

anyone who tries cut commissions when the real money starts to come in, after the manager most likely did all the sweating and hustling to get that client to a position of worth, is a fucking scumbag. and those who endorse this behavior are scumbags too. simple and plain. good business requires thinking past your nose. it requires loyalty for longevity. bradley cooper is not ryan seacrest, where he can afford to be a scumbag. he has had “one” successful film. he is short-sighted, just like you are. any manager he picks up now, is in it for a quick fix and the minute bradley falters, his phone calls will not be returned. don’t think for a second that his agent isn’t looking at that stupid move as a warning as well, you idiot… watch how fast the phone calls aren’t returned by the agent when bradley falters. i don’t even know susan, but good for her!

Realist • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

The next manager??? I think CAA will be just fine getting him work w/o her. Representation is an open ended relationship – this isn’t the Blindside, Susan ‘grew’ Bradley but also profited from it. There are negotiations in everyday life – do you buy a house at asking price? Do you not negotiate when buying or leasing a car? There are lots of big name stars not paying the full commissions at agencies and management companies around town b/c they can. Susan played chicken and lost. Period. Time for her to move on and ‘grow’ someone else.

SFM • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

WHY IS IT considered ” Business” and condoned when people screw over people on either end? I’m not understanding how its EVER O.k. for you to take the time and find the right team for yourself and build your career with them CLEARLY successfully and then go O.k. Thanks for believing in me! Now I’m doing it my way! If he was so good at doing it himself and packaging his talent then was he working before he got his manager and taking her for a free ride?…

..She worked for FREE and fed herself on her belief in him…Thats like having a bank give you a loan and saying to the bank I more than have enough to pay you back now and invest in you but I’m taking my money elsewhere, offshore where you can’t touch it…Just Business!… It’s the significant other putting them thru med school and then being left when they graduate…there are many derivations of this happening in all sorts of relationships in life…But it’s never right, no matter how you spin it…
…Oh and by the way, I’m an actor who has achieved success and in this “business” you can not put a price on loyalty!

anonymous • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

She did a great job. Its a shame. Happens to all of us though. Still nasty.

Duke Theodore • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

What a douche thing to do.

Indrid Cold • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

We’ve heard this story many times and will hear it many more. Maybe he’s unloyal and greedy. Maybe he just wanted to save 15% when he already has 15% going to his agent and lawyer at a point in his career when he’s clearly questioning the need for a manager.

I don’t know this story but I do know and have experienced both sides of these sad situations.

Bottom line, this is a business. People move up, people move out and people do what they feel is right for them. I’ve fired and I’ve been fired. I’ve said “What a disloyal asshole!” and I’ve also said “You deal with him.” to an assistant re: a whiny, time-sucking client.

There’s a fine balance between loyalty and business sense. Very difficult to keep one’s balance in a business like this.

Typical. Just another in the long line of examples of egocentric, deluded, stingy talent who take for granted and/or don’t fully appreciate their mananager’s effort/time/vision to build/launch a major acting or music career – once they have a hit movie or record or TV show, they drop ’em like it’s hot – but how do you think they got to that level of fame/fortune in the first place? While Bradley is handsome, he wasn’t the funniest, best, or most memorable star in The Hangover, and up until recently, he was still starring in dubious stuff like Midnight Meat Train (that barely got released theatrically) – overall (save for his cameo as the bull-headed rugby playing/fiance in Wedding Crashers), he routinely delivers bland, wan, rote performances, so I am not sure how long his fluke of a leading-man status will last? Brad, make those big $$ bank deposits pronto while the money train rolls on – but asking your hard-working, longtime, loyal manager to cut their well-earned commissions after all the no doubt tireless work he/she has done for you to take you to the “next level” is just plain cheap & tacky, and not very charming.

redmenace • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Wow, if this is not the most contradictory statement I have ever read on this blog, I don’t know what is.First you say he isn’t talented and he was only doing crap movies, then you say his manager work tirelessly to get him to the next level.If she was only getting him shit roles before, how exactly did she take him to the next level? Jeez, you can’t be more ridiculous.Bradley Cooper recent success has more to do with luck than anything his now former manager did.

thomas • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

wow what a jerk, after she took up to that level he is trying to cut what she should earn…… so wrong of him to screw her like that

Stupid • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Would he have agreed for her to raise commissions when he was making little money? Asking her to cut commissions is like punishing her for helping to get him where he is. The minute he gets a little bit of power he uses it as leverage against someone who helped him get there? Crazy. After the A-Team bombs he’ll be back.

SoSueMe • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

A-Team is not going to bomb. The trailer played amazingly well with the Clash of the Titans audience.

Nick • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

The A-Team will bomb…

Ben • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

that was clearly a joke as CLASH bombed.

John L Mendez • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Such a shame career success changes long-term relationships. This is endemic an industry where temporal monetary rewards are valued over relational harmony. Such a shame.

anhonestanswer.com • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Ridiculous. It’s called insecurity. He already has the top talent agency in CAA. He doesn’t need to end up part of a management agency. In fact, he’s better off having someone work singularly on his behalf than to become part of another list. There are many arguments for and against this, but what seems to be the case is the secure actors, with real talent, stay with the people that got them there. Viggo Mortenson, Ray Romano etc. It’s the talent that really made it happen and it’s the talent that will keep them on top.

HollywoodDouche • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Couldn’t happen to a “nicer” person…

RandyAW • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

You go Bradley, I don’t blame you for asking for a cut in commisions. It must be tough to put food on the table with what little your agent leaves you.

Kiernan • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

She deserves it

What a shame – they also lost Eva Longoria

Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you

think twice next time you move others – it always comes back to you Ron and Susan

Myra • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Just goes to show the kind of guy he is. Just because it happens often doesn’t make it any less of a jerk of a move.

LL • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

I’m torn on stuff like this. On the one hand, loyalty is great and karma is a biatch. On the other, if he truly feels he doesn’t need her anymore, then what is he supposed to do? Keep losing 10% of everything he makes for the rest of his career just out of loyalty? Maybe he felt he really didn’t need her anymore, but out of loyalty gave her the chance to either take less, or get dumped completely. Given that he’s her biggest client, she probably should’ve taken less. :/

Anonymous • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Hell yeah, thats totally the way I see it. It’s not a loyalty thing. The manager obviously deals with b and c list clients, which is what he was, until hangover and now ateam. hes gotta move up and get someone in a position to handle his needs, and if the manager can’t, well thats business. 15% is alot though, industry standard is 10%.

Anonymous • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Right on. At the end of the day, if you’re at the point where you don’t need your manager anymore, why are you paying them 2 million a year?

J.I.M • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

You have to understand it like this…
Most managers and agents treat their smaller or non-famous clients as if the rep was doing the client a favor in representing him/her.
As if the rep was doing him/her a favor.
When this happens, clients can’t do much except file it away in the “When-I’m-Big-Time-I’ll-Remember-this” drawer.
So… the client goes big time and remembers all those un-returned phone calls or curt emails or dismissive attitudes.
And those managers and agents get fired.
I don’t know if this was the case here, but I’ll bet top dollar it was.
Let this be a (continuing) lesson to agents and managers.

I'm loyal, but... • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

@J.I.M

I agree with you 100%. And it’s a business. How do we know if he stopped booking jobs that she wouldn’t have dropped him? Would she carry around his dead weight on her roster out of loyalty? And since he’s making more money now, that 15% has grown a lot. He probably just wanted to save a little bit more money.

Let’s say he asked her to take 10% instead of 15%. He’s with CAA now, can she do more for him than his agent can? She’s making a lot more money now because of her hard work, isn’t that reward enough?

ex-assistant • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Knowing this situation from the inside, I know that Susan worshiped Bradley. He laughed as she’d bend over backwards to get him to the top and as soon as he made it there, he used commissions as an excuse to let her go.

He was a douchebag four years ago and I’m sure his ego could only be so much worse now. This is not surprising at all. Can’t say I didn’t see this coming though, he has a history of these things…

YupYup • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Perfectly laid out. Agents and managers somehow think they are doing “a favor” to the young talent. They’re not, they are repping them because they are making a bet that they will hit. But yet they don’t treat them that way? They almost set themselves up to be left.

jealous guy • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

wow — someone finally articulates how i feel about it! good stuff.
will you be my manager/agent? ;)

seriously…

Edward • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Brad. Greed will get you nowhere. You lost Green Lantern. You’re not in the major league yet. Don’t overdo it, man.

shakyground • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Agreed. This guy has a cheesy blond tan type of look and vibe as an actor that can be very limiting. He shouldn’t be feeling like he’s arrived. Maybe he knows that and it’s why he fired his manager. It’s the most insecure time for an actor — getting a taste of real fame and success but still not totally there.

Wow • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

That’s insane. I don’t know what the relationship was like between them but it seems pretty shady for Cooper to walk on someone who supported him for quite a while and helped him get to this point.

Guarantee he does a gaggle of shitty movies and his flat, monochromatic acting rears its ugly head and his career plummets to the abyss of Hades’ domain.

jessica • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

what an ungrateful jerk!!!!! She is such a nice lady and worked really hard for him. to all managers thinking about putting your clients at caa……DON’T!!!!!!!

Dude is just the hunk du jour. He will back to playing shit supporting roles in a year or two…

8movies5plays • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

season four entourage.

E tells the truth to his second client and gets fired.

Only fools work for free but 15 percent of zero is still zero.
So.
What will happen when he makes another Saundra B movie All About Steve pt 2. He’s down 28% on Imdb.com and the summer is just warming up. A-team, I don’t see big bucks for that against the Karate kid family movie. 5 to one odds it tanks.
Prince of Persia will bounce it to fourth that weekend.

As for his career.
Tom Selleck he sort of looks like but what about in five years. Will he put on a cowboy hat and go to Aussie land.
Maybe he will go to CMA. Creative Men Aging, but I’m sure by then his agent will have found another pretty boy to take his part.
Loyalty at least in my balance book has its rewards.

??? • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

He’s down 28% on IMDB? So what? What does that number even represent?

Only a moron takes IMDB’s silly percentages seriously.

manager • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

First rule of representation is clients leave. While it’s never pretty and usually not fair, it is a constant nonetheless. Hopefully Thruline is prepared for this and will continue to collect commissions on the projects to which Cooper is attached. However, that notion too has been challenged by vengeful clients and their less-than-honorable lawyers.

We were recently fired by a long-time client who claimed that they didn’t owe us any commissions on jobs that we actually helped them get. We had to sue just to get what we were owed, and it ended up costing BOTH of us (the firm and the now former client) legal fees just to get paid what we were owed to begin with! It makes no sense yet happens every day. Perhaps if the antiquated Talent Agencies Act was modified to reflect today’s reality in the industry, we would see fewer of these kinds of conflicts.

TAA • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

Manager,

Excellent point. An unknown client signs with a manager who works relentlessly to get them a gig. The client goes on to make a ton of money without paying said manager. When the manager finally demands payment, the client drops them. The manager sues for the money and the client defends by claiming the manager “procured” work, which is against the TAA. If it weren’t for the Marathon case it would continue forever. I wrote an in depth analysis on the procurement issue while in law school and would be glad to trade some ideas with you if you’re interested. Shoot me an email at lad823@gmail.com.

Kristi • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

We don’t know the other side of the story. Maybe his former manager was a total bitch, maybe she was flakey, maybe I mean who knows the other side of the story and to call him greedy and this and that without hearing his side of the story from his mouth is ridiculous.

loyalist • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

then he should have left before he was making 5 mil a picture.

impress me brad. i say this. look at the clients who have done well long-term and the loyalty they have had to their managers – Will Smith and JL; Brad Pitt and Cynthia; Leo DiCaprio and Rick; Renee Zellweger and John; Angelina and Guyer; (if you don’t know the managers’ names i’m referring to, get off this site) and the list goes on. those are actors with loyalty, who can buy and sell today’s bradley cooper 100 times over. learn from people smarter and more talented than you and you might just survive with your mediocre talent. go back and beg susan-whatever-her-name is, to take your selfish-disloyal-insecure-greedy-ass back and chalk it up to bad advice from whomever… dunce.

Wendy • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

There are managers, and there are managers. I can’t speak to this particular relationship because I’m not familiar with it, but there is plenty o’ talent out there who just throws away that percentage to a person who doesn’t earn it. It’s business, and this “loyalty” nonsense needs to end. You don’t reward people for just existing.

dude • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

J.I.M hit it on the head:

“So… the client goes big time and remembers all those un-returned phone calls or curt emails or dismissive attitudes.”

That would be me, keeping a list of all the things I’m going to remember my manager (didn’t) do.

Because even if an un-famous client finally makes it big, their rep still remembers them as un-famous and that perception is tough to shift.

It’s better to jump to a new rep where someone like Bradley Cooper can start out as a big fish in a new pond and not a guppie who made good.

loyalist • on Apr 21, 2010 11:55 am

you will never be big idiot… keep making that list. i’m sure it will be a hundred pages long and you still won’t be worth the paper it is written on with that attitude…